Shimla, April 22 -- The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, is drafting a proposal for the ministry of Culture to establish a specialised logistical and research centre for manuscript preservation.

IIAS director Himanshu Singh Chaturvedi announced the initiative on Tuesday during the inauguration of a two-day exhibition in Shimla, envisioning the institute as a central hub for documenting and digitising the vanishing literary heritage of Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Himalayan regions.

Chaturvedi said that modern social science research in India has suffered from a chronic reliance on Western methodologies and Western Indology, which often impose rigid binaries on Indian history. He argued that primary sources coverin...